


Cold Lips on Tear-Stained Cheeks

by Slaygirl1234



Series: Allurements and Sweeteners (Everyone Try to Survive) [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Dark Past, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Stream of Consciousness, the kids are going to be alright
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:15:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26254015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slaygirl1234/pseuds/Slaygirl1234
Summary: Katara takes a few minutes to think about her mother near the ocean.The ghosts of our pasts rarely leave us that easily.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara & Kya (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Allurements and Sweeteners (Everyone Try to Survive) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1908499
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Cold Lips on Tear-Stained Cheeks

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I am feeling angsty.  
> Yes, I love avatar; the last airbender.  
> No, I am not a good writer.

Seated on the ice berg, Katara takes a few minutes to stare into the calm waves as her mind wanders off. Even though she knows she's now an adult, with a wonderful husband and delightful children, some part of her always feels like she could never be free from the war - from death.

If her eyes start slipping a little bit, closing further and further, the darkness behind her eyelids suddenly bring her back to a older time, a time where she could barely fit into her clothes and struggled with basic math. The silence that came with the snow never seemed to promise something ugly - even if the warnings of the bad men in red outfits that breathed fire were drilled into her again and again - and she often woke up with a happy smile on her face in that silence. 

Once she felt mischievous enough, she would walk out of her own room, making sure she never woke up the still-snoring Sokka in the other room, and slowly creep inside her parents' room, struggling to push down that cheeky giggle that threatened to erupt every time she entered their room.

Sure enough, like clockwork, like an ingrained habit, her parents were sleeping together, as peaceful as they could be. Dad would be the one who'd always grasp her Mom's hand tightly, grasping her like she was his lifeline, while Mom would have her hand in his hair, absentmindedly stroking it. Katara sometimes would take a few seconds to admire that scene and desperately wish for her own love like that. It would be like sharing two pieces of the same heart.

Every time her parents seemed to stir, Katara climbed on the bed and immediately started jumping up and down, up and down, up and down until both parents woke up and groaned.

_Every time._

"Wake up! Wake up!"

According to them, Katara's cries were like those roosters that crowed every time the sun went up.

If they were especially unlucky, they would even hear Sokka's loud cries of "It's morning! It's morning! Get up! Get up!" along with her cries, even having to suffer two children bouncing on the bed. 

"Ugh... Kids... Do you live to torture me?" cried Dad one morning, barely managing to keep a single eye open. Before he could finish his rant, he let out a loud yawn that caused her Mom to yawn too before rolling over and closing his eyes. 

Frowning, Sokka wildly shook his Dad. "Da-ad! Da-ad! Come on, you said you'd teach me how to hunt!" 

"Sokka, look outside. Do you see any animal getting up at the crack of dawn?"

"I can't! I'm not a hunter! You promised to make me one."

"Oh, God." 

Katara broke out into fits of laughter at the scene, much to Dad's chagrin. Unbeknownst to her, Mom had already gotten out of bed and was right next to her. 

"Aren't you a naughty child, missy?" teased Mom as she gently pinched Katara's cheeks, which only succeeded in making Katara crinkle her nose. "You know Sokka would follow all your actions, so you decided to team up on us?"

"None of this would've happened if you woke up on time." Katara crossed her arm. Just at the right time, her stomach rumbled loudly and her cheeks turned red. 

Mom laughed and escorted her off the bed. "Alright, missy, let's get cooking. I have a few recipes that I need your help for."

"Do I have to?" complained Katara when they were already leaving her parents' bedroom, leaving Dad to Sokka and his unusual way of breaking a man. 

"Don't you want to eat?"

"Fine." 

Once they were in the kitchen, Mom pulled out the supplies of fish and vegetables, laying them all out on the table. "Here's how you do it, Katara-"

"Katara! Katara!" That voice didn't sound like her Mom's. 

Jumping up, Katara turned around, immediately summoning water to her hands, as her eyes lifted up towards the sky. Once she saw Aang, brightly grinning, on top of a yawning Appa, she relaxed and let the water fall back into the ocean. Her heart leaping in her throat, butterflies spreading their wings in her stomach, she laughed and rushed at her husband, embracing him gently the moment he stepped off of Appa. Appa, it seemed, decided it was his turn to lavish his affections and knocked her on the ground with his long, wet tongue, making her giggle uncontrollably. 

"Why're you here? Sokka's finally visiting us! The kids are overjoyed." 

Instead of answering his question, Katara just turned around and gazed at the silent waves, letting out a short sigh that clued Aang in on her mental state. His smile turned into a worried frown as he clutched her shoulders, asking her what was wrong. What could she say? What words could describe the hollow hole inside her when that man took away her mother and ended her rosy childhood in one fiery blow with a maniacal laugh?

"It's Kya, isn't it?"

Tears pricked her eyes as she somehow found enough strength to nod. "Y-yes. I got over it, you know, but.... death isn't that easy."

Before she could fall apart completely, Aang grasped her lovingly as Appa seated himself behind them, serving as a comfortable clutch for them as Aang patiently waited for the tears to burst from her eyes. And when it did, Aang barely cared that she stained his clothes by settling her head on his shoulder to weep comfortably; he only held her closer as he only said "I understand, I see you, it's okay. Monk Gyatso... was the same for me," before silence settled down on us. 

Appa titled his head as he stared at them, making concerned noises. 

"Katara, you're all grown up!" Mom pointed at Katara's reflection that lay in the rippling waters. "Your hair's so long! You're so big, too!"

Katara grinned and the reflection grinned back at her. Behind her, her Mom had a warm look in her eyes as she insisted on showing Katara how to do her hair like a proper lady, the 'hair loopies' as Sokka dubbed it. With an overwhelming fascination, Katara watched her Mom wave her magic through her soft, nimble fingers that easily wrestled Katara's thick hair, her voice slowly giving out clear instructions for every new step, before twirling around and checking herself out in the puddle. 

"Thanks, Mom!" 

"You're welcome, darling," said Mom before grabbing Katara's collar and fixing it. The silence between them calmed her heart; Katara looked up and smiled at her Mom, who was so beautiful and elegant, the glowing ball of gold and pink in her life, and the silence between them felt more like a gentle music for the soul. Without a warning, a small white ball flew at them. Catching a glimpse of that, Katara jumped up and ducked, which led to the ball melting into her Mom's coat, causing sudden cries of shock and surprise. 

"Sokka!" yelled Katara, flushing red to the tips of her ears. 

"Catch me if you can!" was all he said before rushing off. His giggles still lingered in the air. 

As Katara bent down to create a snowball, every single clump falling into pieces, she let out a frustrated yell as she screamed Sokka was going to get it. Before she finished her small, pathetic ball,Mom tapped her on the shoulder and handed her a large behemoth of a snowball with a twinkling smile. "Good luck, Katara!" 

Sokka screamed in shock when Katara came down upon him like an angry god. As the snowball pelted his face, he lunged at her and they rolled over one another on the cold, biting snow that froze their muscles and turned them scarlet. At the end of it, they laughed and rushed back home once the sky was dark enough, feeding the penguins some leftover fishes they could find, heading directly into a home where Mom and Dad were easily found laughing together. 

One day, when Katara and Sokka threw snowballs at each other, cold enough that made them jolt, when Katara ran away from Sokka, right into Mom's arms, she came home to a tall, burly man in red armour that loomed over Mom, with a look that could only be described as fear. That day, she left home, on Mom's request, and came home to a sight so ugly that she let out an earth-shattering scream, one that signaled her childhood dying. 

They debated on how to bury her. Should she rest underneath the snow or float out into the ocean?

Katara made sure to steer clear of the adults who always patted her head and gave them her condolences in heavy tones, preferring to start sewing and mending while Sokka wrestled with the fishes in the river, trying to reel them in. They talked and talked as to distract themselves from the looming shadow of death over them. 

They never threw snowballs. Sokka tried that once, throwing a snowball, and Katara reacted by screaming at him, her lungs threatening to burst, with tears prickling her eyes. Sokka could only stare with his jaw open. At the end of her incomprehensive rant, he asked her "Why don't you want to do it?"

"Because- Because - Because something bad will happen! Don't you remember?!" 

After that, her shoulders shook and her muscles gave out. The world swayed as she collapsed onto the snow, breaking out into sobs that let all her bad emotions, the emotions she tried to keep underneath her skeleton, run free. The only relief for her was that Sokka immediately hugged her, enveloping her into his familiar warmth, and she realised she wasn't alone in her crying once her shirt got wet. 

Sokka tried to cook for them after that, but accidentally burnt two of the five fishes they caught. Katara took over and they waited for Dad to come home. 

"Do you think he's... coming home?" asked Katara, chewing her lips. 

Even though the same fear was written on his face too, he shook his head and casually chewed his fish. "Nah, he's coming back. No doubt the adults are holding weird, long conversations that are trapping Dad in one place."

Katara hoped he was right. She remembered a friend of hers, whose mother died after the ship rocked and crashed, telling her her Dad came back home smelling of alcohol and often screamed and acted like a possessed man. 

Once they had finished eating, the door opened up and a long, dark shadow, one belonging to a broad man - perhaps the same man that had Mom's blood on his hands - stepped inside. Katara grasped him tightly, with the fear tightening their hold on her muscles, as Sokka waved around a knife clumsily. 

"Who's there?" Sokka's voice cracked with fear.

"It's me. Your Dad." 

"How do we know?" 

"I don't know to be sure; the birth certificate said I was." 

"Dad!" They both flushed at his smart reply. 

After that, Dad kissed them on their foreheads when they went to sleep and promised them he'd come back with news about Mom with a sad twinkle in his eyes. Mom would float out into the sea as Mom had always wanted it to be. 

"I can't... Sometimes, it... the grief overwhelms me." explained Katara. "I know we're okay and we're happy, but it haunts me."

"I know, I know. Sometimes, I wake up from nightmares that make me sweat and they always are about... my friends, the monks. Especially monk Gyatso," said Aang, "You know, we have to live with this, this hole of darkness, and we can just, just build fences around it, grow flowers around it - we have to live with the hole and make sure it never grows. It'll always be there, but we won't let it swallow the light within us."

"Yeah." Katara grabbed his hand and leaned against him. What else could be said? The silence between them was their own conversation. 

As they neared to their home, flying over the blindingly white snow, Katara felt the weight of grief slowly lift off from her shoulders, even though the weight gently burned against her chest. But perhaps that was the wrong way to describe it; the grief, the sadness of Mom's death that always left a bitter taste in her mouth, was less like a weight, and more like an ugly, rustling feeling in her head that leapt out like a serpent and sunk their fangs into her skin. An ugly snake that, no matter how many times Katara beheaded, would always grow two more - and two more - and two more. 

All her thoughts disappeared once Appa settled on the ground and Aang opened the door. Katara was greeted by a sight of chaos when the door opened; her kids, soaking wet and screaming, rushed away from the screaming Sokka, covered from top to bottom in dirt, with snow wilting into his official Fire Nation garb, all in front of the bewildered Zuko, who carried a freshly-cooked pie that awoke both her and Aang's appetite, staring at them pleadingly. 'Don't lump me in with them, please,' was what his look said. 

"Hey, uh... Katara and Aang... I'm sorry for this. It's not my fault, but I shouldn't have let it happen. I was busy baking pie, well, I still can't bake and nobody will allow me to because I nearly burned down the kitchen last time I tried, so I bought it and it got cold, so I let Sokka take care of the kids when I was busy warming the pie with my firebending without risking harming the kids, you know?" were the only words Katara could make out. 

Aang, in the midst of the chaos, whirled around his staff and a gust of air nearly swept everyone of their feet. Everybody stilled and stared at Aang wide-eyed with deep-seated respect and fear (Katara stared at Aang with some love, too). Nobody could, however, see his face.

"Guys! Be quiet!" Once the shadows passed from his face, surrounded by silence, he lifted his face up and smiled brightly. His smile widened to reveal his teeth once he zoomed over to Zuko and his pie, nearly making Zuko jump back. "Is that.... custard... pie?" 

"Yes, why do you ask?"

Aang stared at Zuko with pleading eyes. "Can I have some?"

"Sure," said Zuko before his face brightened up. "Leave some for Katara and the kids, too."

That got a chuckle out of Katara. Sokka decided to jump in with teasing Aang - "Yeah, Aang, you sure you're not a monster with the way you eat? Avatar skills?" - until Sokka met Katara's eyes and his grin faltered. "Uh, hey, Katara, the kids and I went... rolling down the snow... well, your kids pushed me down and I pushed them down, too, except the kids fell into a garden of some kind and messed up the special plants and... now they're staining the carpets! You guys should be ashamed!" Sokka whirled around to glare at the indignant kids, hoping to push the blame onto them. 

Katara snorted. "As if you didn't do that all the time when we were younger." 

"Hey, I'll have you know that I actually learned how to clean-" 

"Yeah, yeah, Sokka, you or your servants? Lying isn't good, Sokka-"

Their argument was cut short when the kids lunged forward, grabbing onto Katara's skirt as their voices combined into one loud chorus of "Mom, Mom, Mom! Can we - Will you let us-". 

Katara looked down at the kids, giving the chance for Sokka to escape. "Dammit-! Sokka-! Okay, what is that you kids want?"

"Can we..." Oh God, the puppy eyes attack. "Can we go to Uncle Zuko's place and see everything? The secret catacombs?"

"What- How-" Katara and Zuko both aimed glares at Sokka, who pretended that he was a plant. 

"We'll see. But wash your hands before you eat! Put on your clean clothes! I won't let you kids come down until you all are clean! I mean it! And you, too, Sokka!" 

"Awww! Dad-/Aang-!" 

Aang was too busy enjoying his pie to notice them. When he finally did, he looked up and shrugged. "Listen to Katara, you guys. Otherwise, the pie's mine."

That served as a good enough motivator for them to rush and clean. 

Katara settled for watching her kids devour the pie, having finished hers a long time ago, as Aang squeezed her hand with one hand, the other hand busy shoving pie into his mouth. Sokka made Zuko blush by heaping loads of affection him, leaning in to make kissy noises that caused all the kids to go "Ewww!", as Zuko, red to the tips of his ears, laughed and pushed him back into his seat.

Behind them, the fire crackled as the golden feeling lingered in her heart. 

Once the night fell, it was as quiet as the ocean outside, letting everyone know nobody was sailing their way there. Not even Katara could hear Mom floating into the sea with a soft, cold lips formed into a smile - the same cold lips that had once kissed her tear-stained cheeks. 

**Author's Note:**

> Oop, a happy ending. Might fuck around and make this a series of fluff between all of the gaang members.


End file.
